Sudan floods kill 36

A Sudanese man sits next to his house in a flooded street on the outskirts of Khartoum on Saturday. Drainage is poor in the capital, where even a little rain can cause flooding but this year’s water surge was unusually severe. AFP PHOTO

KHARTOUM: Flooding has killed 36 people in a region north of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, official radio said on Sunday (Monday in Manila).

“Thirty-six people were killed in Nile state and 5,000 houses were destroyed because of heavy rain and floods,” Radio Omdurman reported.

The brief report by SMS did not specify over what time period the fatalities occurred but heavy rains affected Khartoum and the surrounding region again on Friday, following earlier flooding which began on August 1.

Driven by vicious winds and accompanied by lightning, the rain on Friday lasted about four hours in Khartoum, where even modern apartment buildings suffered leaks.

Many Sudanese live in one-room homes built of mud bricks, which can easily wash away.

Residents whose houses were still standing had dragged their belongings outside, where some sat on beds trying to stay above the brown water.

Drainage is poor in the capital, where even a little rain can cause flooding.

Before the latest deluge this weekend, the United Nations said heavy rains and flash floods in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan had killed 11 people and affected almost 100,000 others this month.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the capital region and Nile state were the worst hit, but that five other states were also inundated.

Eight of the 11 deaths occurred in the greater Khartoum area, where almost 60,000 people were affected, according to data cited by OCHA from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and another local humanitarian group.

It said more than 14,000 houses had been destroyed or damaged in the affected states.